Asahi launches AFP-BFTH FlatTop flexographic plates

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Written by Staff Writer

Published: 17 February 2019

Asahi Photoproducts has launched the AFP-BFTH plate in the first half of 2019, an out-of-the-box built-in flat top plate in the market that features premium clean transfer technology, which is designed to facilitate kiss touch printing pressure. This new plate, available in hard, fits seamlessly into any workflow and requires no special equipment.

"The AFP-BFTH plate is the first plate with clean transfer technology to boost solid ink homogeneity in printing," says Dieter Niederstadt, technical marketing manager at Asahi Photoproducts. "It also delivers consistent print quality throughout the run, with fewer press stops for plate cleaning. This adds up to increased productivity and throughput while significantly reducing waste. Asahi’s Clean Transfer Technology has found great market reception in our line of water-washable plates, and we are now excited to be extending this capability to other plate categories in our portfolio. Not only will this help flexographic printers increase productivity, but it will also extend the range of applications they can offer to their customers, including the ability to transfer more work from offset to flexo."

Asahi´s AFP-BFTH digital flexo plate is the first built-in flat top plate to include clean transfer technology, and it is available in hard. The printing plates remain clean during print production runs for consistent print quality and fewer press stops for plate cleaning and are available available in 1,14 and 1,7 mm.

The BFTH plates have been developed for water-based, solvent-based, and UV ink systems. In combination with solid area micro-screening technologies, it is possible to achieve 100 percent homogenous solid area coverage without any visible substrate voids.

Asahi’s clean Transfer Technology is designed to facilitate kiss touch printing pressure. Lighter printing pressure ensures constant repeatability of printing quality during the production run as well as longer plate life. This characteristic is achieved with unique Asahi-engineered photopolymer chemistry that reduces the surface energy of the printing plate and enables better ink transfer to the substrate during printing.

Clean transfer technology has the beneficial effect of reducing ink filling-in the mid-tone area during the printing run, leading to fewer cleaning intervals and less press downtime. Achieving graphical printing performance and improvement in productivity was the focus of Asahi´s Clean Transfer Technology plate development efforts. AFP-BFTH plate technology improves press uptime during the printing process.